During this past autumn I thought a lot about translation, the act of
translating and (my relationship to) language. One of the best books
about translating I’ve read is David Bellos’, "Is
That A Fish In You Ear?: The Amazing Adventure of Translation", which I
keep recommending to anyone who cares to listen. In October The Guardian
published two articles, that both dealt with the translation of plays from
different perspectives. One about a series of new translations of Ibsen’splays, and one about a new translation of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”.

All of these texts have planted a seed to an so far only half thought
through idea on the subject. I would like at some point, with more time and
deliberation, try to think these ideas through and express myself more
eloquently on the subject. Instead I’ll write this.

I think there’s a
difference between translating a so called classic and a new play, that isn’t
weighed down by the tradition created by previous translations or by a
production history/tradition of interpretation. A text that isn’t haunted by
the past in that sense, to borrow Marvin Carlson’s concept.

I think the line between
translation and adaptation is very blurry, for better or worse. This applies
both to stories that are written and take place in a different time to the one
they were written in, and to stories that take place in a culture different to
the one the play’s performed in.

I think there is a
difference between translating a text from a “dominant” (for lack of a better
word) culture and a text that is translated into a “dominant” culture. In other
words, it’s a different beast from English to Swedish, when one can assume that
the receiving audience will have some sort of relationship to the original
culture, through their own experience or (popular) culture, compared to
translating a text from Swedish to English, when one can’t make the same type
of assumption about any degree of familiarity with the original culture.

Röster från Skillnaden: Svenska Teatern från 1930-talet till 2010-talet (utgiven av Förlaget) /// My book about the history of the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki from the 1930s to the 2010s (published by Förlaget)